Greatest Ultralight Tents of 2024, Examined and Reviewed

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Ultralight tents are one of many nice engineering marvels: out of a sheet of wafer-thin cloth and a pair of trekking poles, you may make shelter appropriate to face up to wind, rain, bugs, and extra. Our solely actual grievance about ultralight tents is you can’t simply go to an enormous field showroom and see all of them arrange facet by facet. A few of the greatest on the market are made by smaller cottage firms that merely don’t have that type of attain. In order a part of Out of doors Life’s annual backpacking gear exams, we’re taking one of the best ultralight tents from firms like Durston, TarpTents, Gossamer Gear, Zpacks, Search Outdoors, and extra out on America’s lengthy trails to see which is able to impress our tester group. For the parameters of this take a look at, we’re defining ultralight as weighing lower than 2 kilos for a one-person tent or 2.5 kilos for a two-person tent.

↓ Bounce to Semi-Freestanding Tents

↓ Bounce to Trekking-Pole Tents

How We Examined the Greatest Ultralight Tents

Choice

Ultralight tents are chosen throughout a variety of producers, from large names like MSR and Mountain {Hardware} to cottage firms like Search Outdoors and Durston. We take a look at a variety of tent types — each freestanding and trekking pole — as a way to get a greater sense of which tents are acceptable for folks of varied sizes and with completely different expertise ranges.

From left to right, the KUIU Summit Star, Seek Outside Cimarron, and Gossamer Gear The One on the third morning of testing along the Oregon Coast Trail. — The KUIU Summit Star and Gossamer Gear The ONE on the third morning of testing alongside the Oregon Coast Path. Ashley Thess

Since this evaluate is by and for folks centered on ultralight backpacking, weight is the most important precedence, adopted by person suggestions and, lastly, value. The place a few of our much less skilled backpackers struggled with setup, we’ll be aware {that a} specific tent could require observe to arrange appropriately. Non-necessary options, like a number of pockets, might be talked about however should not a rating issue.

Tents are divided into two classes:

Semi-freestanding tents may be put up with out stakes, however might be lacking some actual property on the within. These tents ought to nonetheless be staked down throughout windy circumstances and to assist maximize the utility of the rainfly throughout downpours.
Trekking pole tents have to be staked into the bottom as a way to rise up. Some, however not all, gear producers present optionally available poles for people who don’t use trekking poles.

Testers

To check one of the best backpacking tents, OL recruited a testing panel with a variety of expertise ranges, physique sorts, and preferences.

Adam Tycaster — Over 4,000 miles of backpacking expertise, together with the PCT 2014 and CT 2017. Top: 6-foot-3.
Alex Robinson — OL editor-in-chief; a backcountry large recreation hunter and fair-weather path runner. Top: 6-foot-2.
Ashley Thess — OL affiliate gear editor. Over 600 miles of backpacking expertise. Top: 5-foot-7.
Diana Helmuth — Creator of Undergo Outdoors (Nationwide Out of doors E-book Award winner). Over 1,500 miles of backpacking expertise. Top: 5-foot-11.
Jac “Prime Shelf” Mitchell — Over 11,000 miles of backpacking expertise together with the PCT 2014, CDT 2016, AZT, 2017, and GET 2017. 5-foot-6.
Laura “Chop Chop” Lancaster — OL workers author. Over 4,000 miles of backpacking expertise, together with the PCT 2014 and CT 2017. 5-foot-5.
Patrice “Regular” La Vigne — Gear reviewer, Denali information, and creator of Between Every Step. Over 7,000 miles of backpacking expertise, together with the AT 2011 and Te Araroa 2014-2015. 5-foot-5.
Sven “Magic” Anderson — 1,350-mile LASH (PCT) 2022. Mountaineering with Parkinson’s illness. 6-foot-2.

Testing

Out of doors Life conducts an annual backpacking gear testing journey that focuses on revolutionary light-weight and ultralight backpacking gear. These testing journeys happen on America’s nationwide scenic trails, together with three nights alongside the northernmost part of the Oregon Coast Path and 4 nights on a stretch of the Pacific Crest Path within the Goat Rocks Wilderness.

Woman setting up the Mountain Hardwear Nimbus on hard ground — We arrange one of the best ultralight tents on diverse terrain and in several climate circumstances.

Alex Robins

These journeys normally see the testing group masking 10 or extra miles every day, organising camp in environments starting from the alpine to lowland coastal areas to deep forest. Testers obtain a brand new tent for testing every night, which they’re chargeable for organising, sleeping in, taking down, and carrying to the following camp. Small particulars, like a too-small door, a sticky zipper, or troublesome to make use of connection factors can begin to actually leap once you examine this many tents facet by facet in a real-world surroundings. The place potential (and affordable) testers arrange their tents in lower than best circumstances to see how they might fare within the components.

Scoring

We independently weighed the tents as used within the subject. This is a crucial distinction, as a result of most producers solely present “packaged weight” (every thing that got here with the tent, together with the restore equipment) and “minimal weight” (simply the poles, predominant physique, and rain fly). Some cottage firms, which frequently promote their tents with out the mandatory stakes, don’t present a path weight in any respect. The weights offered beneath extra carefully mirror how ultralight backpackers would use these tents: with stakes, and some guylines. For sure, the weights offered within the report card range from manufacturer-provided weights.

Five people sitting around a table filling out score sheets — Scoring one of the best backpacking tents after 40 miles of mountaineering alongside the Pacific Crest Path.

Adam Tycaster

After taking copious notes within the subject, the testing crew then spends a day filling out scoring sheets for every merchandise within the take a look at. When scoring tents, we arrange every tent once more in order that we might examine and distinction their relative deserves. We additionally talk about and examine with each other, which is useful for understanding how and why experiences with the identical gear can range from individual to individual. Scores are then averaged among the many testers, with the highest scoring tents receiving prime honors.

Ease of arrange: Tents have been arrange by a number of testers, permitting us to evaluate which have been appropriate for amateur ultralighters and which ought to be dealt with solely by skilled backpackers.
Inside residing house: Most backpackers will spend eight or extra hours a day sleeping — that’s a 3rd or extra of your outing on the path. A tent that feels claustrophobic or cramped will make for a worse open air expertise and probably negatively have an effect on your sleep at night time. We assessed the usable house in every tent, noting how the slope of pitch or vestibule dimension modified our expertise.
Safety: Testers thought of whether or not the tents they slept in offered ample safety from rain, wind, and condensation.
Worth: The worth of an ultralight tent can range wildly, from a pair hundred {dollars} to upwards of $600 — the costliest ultralight tent we checked out prices effectively over a thousand. We ranked every tent on whether or not the setup, weight, and liveability is merited by the worth level.

Inside Area

A second take a look at we pioneered throughout our evaluate of two-person ultralight tents is OL’s Two Dudes in a Tent. In our expertise, a “two particular person tent” can imply a number of various things. Generally it means it’s an ideal tent for {couples}. Generally it’s simply an additional massive tent for a single particular person. More often than not, it should match two ladies fairly effectively. And typically it should really present sufficient house for 2 common sized males to sleep subsequent to one another with out issues getting awkward. This take a look at consisted of two phases. Within the first, Alex Robinson and Sven “Magic” Anderson — each over 6-foot-2 — bought into every tent and evaluated whether or not or not they might wish to share it whereas backpacking. For these tents that failed this metric (and there have been loads of these), Ashley Thess and Jac “Prime Shelf” Mitchell examined to see which they might be prepared to share with each other. One be aware on this take a look at is that these outcomes should not at the moment obtainable for the tents coated in OL’s first spherical of backpacking gear testing, which centered on one-person fashions.

two men lying down inside of a tent — Editor-in-Chief Alex Robinson and Sven “Magic” Anderson gamely testing out whether or not the Search Outdoors Daylight might, the truth is, match two full-size males.

Diana Helmuth

Lastly, many out of doors gear producers are engaged on eradicating PFAS, a virtually ubiquitous eternally chemical, from their waterproof gear as we strategy the 2025 deadline set by California and New York. I queried producers to see the place they have been on this course of and have included that data beneath within the report card part. Usually, responses have been very encouraging. Producers have already made vital strides in eradicating PFAS from the primary materials of their tents, and are actually engaged on getting it out of the trimmings (zippers is an enormous one which retains developing). Virtually all had plans to be PFAS free by spring of 2025. A number of are already there.

Learn Subsequent: PFAS Defined: These Without end Chemical compounds Are Being Banned from a Number of Out of doors Merchandise. Now Gear Makers Are Scrambling

Comparability Desk

Under is a side-by-side take a look at the specs most vital to ultralight backpackers (value, dimension, and weight) together with the typical of our testers’ scores. The tent weights right here come from the producers; our measured weights may be present in the important thing options part beneath. Costs are present as of the date this text was final up to date. Tents are organized by pitch fashion and listed within the order during which we suggest them.

Semi-Freestanding Tent Specs & Tester Scores

Tent	Worth	Marketed Weight	Size x Max Width (Min Width)	Setup	Inside Area	Safety	Worth
MSR Freelite	1P: $420 2P: $450 3P: $540	1P: 1 lb, 15 oz 2P: 2 lb, 5 oz 3P: 2 lb, 11 oz	1P: 87” x 33” 2P: 84” x 50” 3P: 84” x 66”	5	3.5	5	4
Zpacks Free Zip	2P: $900 3P: $1000	2P: 1 lb, 15.6 oz* 3P: 2 lbs, 4.2 oz*	2P: 86” x 44” 3P: 86” x 60”	4.8	2.8	3.4	2.4
Mountain Hardwear Nimbus	2P: $420	2P: 2 lb, 4.6 oz	2P: 86” x 52” (42”)	4.7	3	3.7	3.3
Large Agnes Fly Creek	2P: $400	2P: 2 lb, 4oz	2P: 86” x 52” (42”)	4	2.3	3	4.3